Way back, it seemed like the Atlantic was caught between a professional journal and lay magazine. I'm not sure how much demand for that would be in a general readership. There is a lot to be said for magazines written to help the public stay in touch with new science, without laying out a lot of data.
In one of Stephen Hawking's books, he gave a special thanks to his editor in the introduction. Hawking wanted the book to be for the public and said he was trying to follow the editor's advice who cautioned him that every time he used an equation, he would lose 1/4 of his reader's interest.
I don't think he lasted 4 pages before he felt compelled to write an equation. It was a doozey too, with special symbols never before seen, along with the usual math function symbols or some abbreviations thereof. And they kept showing up. He was obsessed with equations, apparently unable to talk to normal people without them, and unable to heed the advice he most needed to hear to achieve his goal.
